Book review: ‘Just Being Audrey’

Posted in Book Reviews
by Lorain County Moms

McClatchy-Tribune

“Just Being Audrey”
By Margaret Cardillo
Illustrated by Julia Denos
From Balzer + Bray Children’s Books ($16.99)
For ages 4-8

Like Audrey Hepburn herself, the children’s picture book “Just Being Audrey,” is charming, beautiful and inspiring.

The book, with its lovely soft pastel illustrations, starts with young Audrey’s dreams of becoming a ballerina in Belgium. It touches briefly on the family fleeing to Holland during World War II, before her discovery by the famous French author Colette, who picked her for the title role in her play “Gigi” on Broadway.

This is the point in the story were the movie-watching public falls in love with her. But readers will be way ahead of them.

Although it is undeniably the movie star, complete with ballet flats, pixie haircut and pedal-pushers; it is her kind spirit that draws readers in. The story focuses not on her celebrity, but what she does with it, and how she becomes known as the kindest actress in Hollywood and, later, a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.

Any one — young girls who have never seen her beautiful face on screen in “Roman Holiday” or “Sabrina,” to women who have been emulating her style for decades — will adore this book and the woman who was gorgeous inside and out.